1. Summary of the Invention
The present invention concerns a device for distributing predetermined quantities of liquid and/or pasty products, as well as an installation for the production of food preparations using said device.
It applies in particular, but not exclusively, to the embodiment of installations for the production of pancakes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Generally speaking, for this type of application, there are already available installations including:
a horizontal cooking top with one or several cooking plates,
a mobile paste distributor above the cooking top so as to be able to lay the dough on the cooking plate(s) and then be moved away from the latter to enable an operator to carry out all the necessary handlings (especially tossing) for cooking the pancakes.
The patent FR No 94 1479 filed in the name of the Applicant concerns a dough distributor including a refrigerated tank whose bottom includes a distribution orifice controlled by an obturator able to be activated by a side handle.
This solution proves to be particularly advantageous and makes it possible to increase the production rates of pancakes whilst reducing to a strict minimum the time required for laying the paste on the cooking plates.
Nevertheless, it does have a certain number of drawbacks the invention seeks to eliminate:
It does not make it possible to accurately apportion the paste quantities laid on the plate. During laying, the operator works on the basis of an evaluation of the amount of paste placed in the plate so as to close the obturator, the opening time needing to be continuously modified according to the amount of paste remaining in the device. Apart from the fact that this evaluation is rough, it has the drawback of not taking into account the quantity of paste which flows after closing of the obturator. This placing operation is thus inaccurate and nevertheless preoccupies all the attention of the operator who cannot at the same time carry out another task (for example monitoring another cooking plate).
After closing, the obturator and the pipe situated downstream of the latter allow paste drips to escape which, owing to the mobility of the measuring device, soils various portions of the cooking plate. The operator thus needs to periodically clean the cooking plate, thus interrupting the pancake production rate
For these reasons, the distributor described in said patent Fr is clearly unsuitable when it is associated with other distributors of the same type, for example to allow the operator to select the paste or indeed the distribution of ingredients or accompanying food, such as cream, fondu chocolate, sauce.
So as to eliminate all these drawbacks, the invention concerns a distribution device of said type including:
two superimposed receptacles communicating with each other via an orifice fitted in the at in the bottom of the first receptacle, namely: an upper receptacle closed by a cover and used as a tank for a product to be distributed and a lower smaller receptacle which forms a cylinder whose bottom is provided with outlets;
a piston which slides sealed inside said cylinder between an upper intake position and a bottom end of distribution travel position, this piston being traversed by at least one orifice and being stressed by first elastic means towards its upper intake position;
a mobile clack valve between the opening and closing positions of said orifice, this valve being stressed by second elastic means towards its opening position;
a distribution nozzle communicating with the outlet and provided with an obturator normally closed which opens under the effect of the pressure of the product contained in the cylinder when a thrust of the piston is exerted; and
means for activating the piston from outside said receptacles making it possible to successively obtain from an initial state in which the piston is in its upper intake position, the clack valve in an open position and the obturator is in a closed position;
the closing of the clack valve and then the movement of the piston towards its end of distribution travel position with simultaneously opening of the obturator and distribution of the product, immobilisation of the piston at the end of travel with closing of the obturator, opening of the clack valve, then
the return of the piston into its upper intake position with simultaneously sucking up of the product contained in the receptacle inside the cylinder.
Advantageously, said activation means could include a rod extending coaxially inside the upper receptacle and whose upper extremity passes through an orifice provided in the cover. The lower portion of this rod passes through two coaxial orifices provided respectively in said clack valve and said piston, stop means integral with the rod being provided to limit the travel of the clack valve in an upper position and the travel of the piston in a bottom position. The elastic means stressing the clack valve to its opening position may then consist of a coaxial helical spring taking support on the piston, the stiffness of this spring being weaker than that of the elastic means stressing the piston to its upper intake position.
The activation of the rod can then be ensured by means of a control lever joined by one extremity onto the upper receptacle and which takes support on the upper extremity of the rod.